The face that launched a thousand lawsuits

Art and Social Justice

documentary film series at the Anderson Collection
with
CAW (Camera as Witness) Program/UNAFF (United Nations Association Film Festival) 

Portrait of Wally, Egon Schiele’s tender picture of his mistress, Walburga (“Wally”) Neuzil, is the pride of the Leopold Museum in Vienna. But for thirteen years the painting was locked up in New York, caught in a legal battle between the Austrian museum and the Jewish family from whom the Nazis seized the painting in 1939. The film traces the history of this iconic image–from Schiele’s gesture of affection toward his young lover, to the theft of the painting from Lea Bondi, a Jewish art dealer fleeing Vienna for her life, to the post-war confusion and subterfuge that evoke The Third Man, to the surprise resurfacing of “Wally” on loan to the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. The “Wally” case brought the story of Nazi art loot into the open, eventually forcing museums in Europe and the U.S. to return art to Jewish families.

Director: Andrew Shea. Austria/USA, 90 min.

Following the screening, there will be a discussion with New York art and film critic David D’Arcy, subject and producer of the film, moderated by Jasmina Bojic, Camera As Witness Program Director and Founder of the international documentary film festival UNAFF.

Limited capacity. No registration needed. First come, first seated. Please check in at the Visitor Services desk upon arrival.